EXCLUSIVE Paranormal experts DEFEND taking 'evil' doll Annabelle on tour and reveal new strange encounters
Annabelle, a famously haunted Raggedy Anne doll, started a tour earlier this month ahead of a Psychic Festival, making stops in West Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas.
The doll's famous history began in 1970 after it had been gifted to a Hartford nurse and then began moving on her own and, in one instance, allegedly attacked the owner's fiancé.
Lorraine and Ed Warren, renowned paranormal researchers and founders of Warren's Occult Museum, investigated the doll's paranormal activity and gave her a permanent spot in their museum.
She was displayed in a protective case, fitted with carved prayers and crosses as well as a sign made by Ed Warren, which read, 'Warning: Positively Do Not Open.'
The Warrens had always warned about moving Annabelle but for those who took the doll on tour they vehemently defended doing so and say it is what the Warrens would have wanted.
NESPR Lead Investigator into the paranormal, Chris Gilloren, who was part of the tour team, told DailyMail.com: '[Annabelle's] not a spectacle, but it's a great way to get people talking about evil. That's what Ed and Lorraine wanted to do. They wanted to expose the devil, and tell people, advise people that the devil is real.'
Ryan Buell, a paranormal investigator who also joined the tour, agreed that it was about education and continuing to spread the work of Ed and Lorraine Warren.
'We keep the legacy and name of Ed and Lorraine alive. That they devoted their lives to this work, that there are people our there who still dedicate their own lives to helping people who are having these experiences,' Buell said.
'It's not that people just went in and saw a doll and they're like, 'oh cool.' We sat there and we talked to people. We talked about the dangers. We talk about the precautions.'
But the tour was not without it's strange and creepy moments that fueled wild online speculation on Annabelle's ability to leave a path of destruction as she moved around the country.
On May 15, as Annabelle left Louisiana - her second tour stop - the historic 166-year-old Nottoway Plantation was destroyed in a blazing fire.
Online speculation quickly turned to the doll's close presence as the reason the historic site went up in flames, but her caretakers are not convinced.
Gilloren said: 'I don't know where these people come up with these... I mean, it's taken off, it's got a mind of its own.
'We don't think it has anything to do with us, of course, or Annabelle.'
One post on X connected the dots on May 19 and wrote: 'Three days ago they moved Annabelle, one of the most haunted dolls from Monroe, Connecticut, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and now the largest sugarcane plantation in Louisiana burned down AND 11 inmates in a New Orleans Prison escape...'
'Didn't the Warren's say she should never be move,' the post concluded.
Another comment said: 'Taking her down here where there's voodoo and spirits everywhere is actually an idiot move I have to say.'
Many other social media users worried about their own cities, and even contacted those monitoring Annabelle.
'...the amount of messages, emails that I received through our websites and social medias... they truly believe Annabelle did all this, which makes no sense to me personally... you know, why would she burn it down?' Gilloren said.
Gilloren said he believed that the events were purely coincidental.
Speaking to Buell, DailyMail.com pointed out the route Annabelle took as she left Louisiana. He examined the route through the state and said: 'This is the first time I've ever looked. Okay, yes, I can confirm we were within five miles [of the plantation] on the freeway. And, yes, it was on the same day.
'So, I mean, yes, that is a very bizarre coincidence.'
Yet, Buell said there was an even stranger occurrence before they left New Orleans - a voodoo Priestess who 'challenged' Annabelle.
'We were like, 'wait, so we're being blamed for what? A plantation? Somewhere in Louisiana? Louisiana, okay, well probably coincidence,' But I mean, I kind of thought, well, there was this voodoo priestess who challenged Annabelle when we were leaving,' he recalled.
'We were packing up and all of a sudden we heard tambourines and someone's screaming, 'Go to hell, Annabelle,'' Buell said.
'She laid holy water down and said, 'In the name of New Orleans voodoo, I rebuke you.'... but I mean, there was the thought of, yikes, this priestess just challenged Annabelle. It was almost like voodoo versus the demonic,' he continued.
'And so... there was that creeping thought of, 'what if,'' Buell said.
Theories that blamed Annabelle for the fire and escaped inmates were just the tip of the iceberg of the strange goings on during the doll's time on the road.
'To our knowledge, it's the first time we brought Annabelle to another haunted location, especially that far out,' Buell said, of their first tour stop in West Virginia State Penitentiary, a famously haunted building.
'What was weird - and I've been to the penitentiary many, many times - when Annabelle was in the prison, the activity around the prison was low.'
Buell added that they had psychic mediums with them in the prison who said that other 'spirits' were 'staying at a distance'.
Buell said that he had visited the West Virginia State Penitentiary numerous times before, but that Annabelle's presence had quietened other spirit activity he had experienced before. Pictured: Ryan Buell in front of the WV State Penitentiary
'[The spirits are] just kind of watching. A couple were saying they felt uneasy,' Buell said.
'They didn't know what that meant. Then when we took Annabelle out, you know, we're wrapped up... Then the activity picked up.
'And the two employees who were there, who regularly witnessed the activity, they pulled me to the side and said, 'look, they don't like it that Annabelle is here. They don't like its energy, so they're hanging back.''
After Annabelle had left, other activity picked up again. Buell recalled his previous experiences at the prison, without Annabelle.
'You'll hear whispers. You'll hear footsteps. And then especially in the infirmary on the second floor. That place is so active,' he said. 'You'll literally hear bangings if you say, hey, knock for me. You'll hear intelligent responses, you know, knocking back.'
He described his experience within the infirmary as feeling like 'prey'.
'You're very well aware of the fact that you're being watched. You feel like something is literally following you and you start to feel a sense of danger,' he added, recalling that he heard bangs and the slamming of doors around him.
Annabelle's presence at the penitentiary was not only felt by the spirits within the building, but also those who came in for the tour.
Buell recalled how things got 'aggressive' as they used a spirit box to communicate with the doll, who inspired The Conjuring and Annabelle movie franchises.
He said the process involves one person listening with noise cancelling headphones, only able to hear what's going on inside the box, while those outside ask questions.
'It's pulling from like public radio stations, right? The spirit box. It just randomly jumps from station to station and pulls sounds and voices from it,' Buell said.
'People would ask questions, 'who's here with us? Is the entity around Annabelle here?' and suddenly the answers.. suddenly it started to turn to like, 'You b***. I want your body.' Some other stuff.'
'...I remember at one point I was like okay, I'm done. This energy is getting a little too weird. And so we had another person do it and then they got very emotional,' he continued.
Despite having worked with Annabelle many times before, Buell still found himself sensing a strange energy surrounding the doll.
'In New Orleans, myself and Wade, who is a member of NESPR, were mainly the ones giving the talks about the Warren's... and so we would have to stand in front of Annabelle for hours,' he said.
'And the first day, Wade and I looked at each other and we're like, the energy is so off, like it feels so weird and he totally agreed.'
'I started getting really intrusive thoughts, and Wade had to remind me that the demonic often use psychological tactics, so we just doused ourselves in holy water and kept going,' Buell recalled.
But even with Annabelle's unnerving presence, her keepers defended the doll against the spiral of rumors that Annabelle had caused the chaos along their route.
'I mean, she was down in San Antonio and I really haven't heard of anything happening in San Antonio. She was in West Virginia. I haven't heard anything up in West Virginia happening,' Gilloren said.
'She's in Connecticut. I mean she's been in Connecticut for 50 years. We don't blame every kind of disaster on Annabelle,' he added.
Anabelle's tour continues in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from July 11-13 and then in Rock Island, Illinois, from October 4-5.
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